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WASHINGTON — Hackers sympathetic to the late computer prodigy Aaron Swartz claimed yesterday to
have infiltrated the website of the Justice Department’s Sentencing Commission, and said they
planned to release government data.

The Sentencing Commission site, www.ussc.gov, was shut down early yesterday.

Identifying themselves as Anonymous, a loosely organized group associated with a range of recent
online actions, the hackers voiced outrage over Swartz’s suicide on Jan. 11.

In a video posted online, the hackers criticized the government’s prosecution of Swartz, who had
been facing trial on charges that he used the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s computer
networks to steal more than 4 million articles from JSTOR, an online archive and
journal-distribution service. Swartz had faced up to 31 years in prison and fines of up to$1
million if convicted.

The FBI is investigating the attack on the website, according to Richard McFeely of the bureau’s
Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch.

“We were aware as soon as it happened and are handling it as a criminal investigation,” McFeely
said in an emailed statement. “We are always concerned when someone illegally accesses another
person’s or government agency’s network.”